The Homeputerium programming challenge Basic 10liners 2019 has ended and the results are in. This years edition started on January the 30th and resulted in a load of entries, with MSX programs among it.

Many of us will remember the magical moment when they first ran the following BASIC program:

10 INPUT "What's your name ";a$
20 PRINT "hello ";a$

The computer just said my name! :RNFF:

From that moment on, we were captivated of what you could do with a computer. It was much easier in the 80s to take the first steps than it is now. Literally a few seconds after turning on the computer you could start programming. The BASIC language was in the ROM and a friendly "Ok" with a familiar cursor was waiting for you.

But, finally, assembler, PCs, IDEs, compilers, github and dockers came along. Programming has become a nice way for many to be able to pay for food, taxes and mortgages. But without BASIC, those people would have become accountants or ended up under a bridge.